Great Wolf Lodge

This past weekend, we took a short trip up to Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, Texas.  The idea was to give Maya one list "kid" trip before the new arrival.  (Though Maya may be spoiled when it comes to trips; she did ask me about a week before we left whether the people at the place we were going would speak English.)  Great Wolf Lodge met almost all of our requirements: it was very kid-centric, it was air-conditioned (hey, it's 100 degrees out and I'm pregnant!), and it was within driving distance.  (The restaurants could have been better.)  Even a last minute ear infection didn't keep us away.  The place is basically a hotel/resort with an indoor (and a little bit outdoor) water park and a bunch of kid activities (crafts, "magic quest," etc.).  We did it ALL.  And while it was very theme-park cheesy, we really didn't have to wait in lines for much at all (the longest we waited was less than 10 minutes for a picture with Wiley the Wolf).

When we arrived on Friday night about 10pm, Maya was awake enough to LOVE the fact that she got bunk beds in a wolf cave as her sleeping arrangement.  When we woke up on Saturday, we started with breakfast, and then hit the water park as soon as it opened at 9am.  This was a brilliant idea: the place was much less crowded in the morning than in the afternoon.  Maya loved the wave pool, the water fort (several stories of water fountains and sprayers), the lazy river, and even the "toddler" area (though there were plenty of things for bigger kids in it too).  She balked at the water slides, though.  We swam for a couple of hours, then grabbed some lunch and got Maya set up with her magic quest magic wand. Throughout the hotel, there were all kinds of treasure chests, pictures, and other things that could be activated by a wave of the wand.  Maya could activate her personal "quests," which were basically scavenger hunts that took her all over the hotel.  She loved it (and Tim did, too, I think).  After a solid nap, we headed back to the water park for the afternoon.  We tried out the outdoor pool for a bit, but it started storming, so we went back inside.  After showering (again), we had some pizza for dinner and then went down to the lobby in our PJs for story time (ok, Maya was in her PJs) and a photo op with Wiley.  After that, we did a little more magic quest before turning in for the evening.

Sunday morning, Maya announced that she didn't want to swim but do magic quest all day.  We had some breakfast and played in the arcade for a while until magic quest opened.  By 9am Maya had changed her mind, so back into swimsuits we went for another turn around the waterpark.  On Sunday, Maya was brave enough to try out the smaller water slides (they were a couple of flights of stairs up, and she had to do them alone, but she LOVED them).  We did a bunch more swimming before cleaning up and grabbing more lunch.  Maya and her dad did a bunch more questing after lunch (while I took a little rest) before we headed home.